Product Information Management (PIM) Software built on GS1 Standards

Today, organizations recognize the importance of product transparency for consumer safety and maintaining efficient supply chains to support their business goals. Establishing an efficient product information chain is equally important. Regardless of the vertical market your company is aligned with, product information must be consistent while being managed from conception to consumer.

Compliance with GS1 Standards ensures that product data exchanged between trading partners is accurate and follows universally supported specifications. However, to be confident in product attribution requires organizations to have streamlined systems to Aggregate, Validate and Communicate product information. Not meeting these challenges can lead to inefficiencies among trading partners, an inconsistent web presence, retailer/regulatory fines and consumer harm – all of which damage your brand and bottom line.

Aggregation

Companies are plagued with many aggregation challenges, particularly when attributes addressing supply chain and web content demands reside in multiple internal systems - ERP, PLM, Formulary, Spreadsheets and databases. There is no single source of the truth. In addition, because the Internet is the primary source of consumer research, retailers’ data demands for both logistics and attribution for their eCommerce sites are growing exponentially. The accuracy of product information is continually in question. How does an organization ensure consumers, retailers, websites, supply chain and governmental regulatory agencies are aligned with the same product details?

LANSA Data Sync Direct is built upon a Business Process Integration Engine (BPI). This BPI provides the ability for companies to integrate their existing systems (SAP, Infor, Oracle, Digital Asset Management, etc.) in the format of their choice (XML, flat file, CSV, etc.) via their internal best practices methodology (EAI, Middleware, Web Services, etc). One submitted, LANSA Data Sync Direct will aggregate these product attributes into the system to provide a single location for disparate information.

Validation

Fortunately, the market recognized the need for standardized business rules (GS1 Standards) and a common distribution channel (the Global Data Synchronization Network aka GDSN). The GDSN enables 1WorldSync and other regional data pools to publish and track product based on their Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) information in the GS1 Global Registry. Once registered, GTIN information can be published to any trading partner worldwide that subscribes to a certified data pool to maintain accurate product details in a timely and consistent manner.

Compliance with GS1 Standards ensures product data exchanged between trading partners is accurate and follows universally supported standards regardless of region or product category. LANSA Data Sync Direct has the entire set of GS1 rules embedded within the solution to ensure your aggregated data passes the GS1 Standards before submitting via the GDSN or sharing this information outside of the GDSN.

While GS1 Standards are important, so are your internal rules and policies. LANSA includes a browser based administrative facility to expand the business rules to meet your internal specifications.

Importance of Workflow

What happens if a new product is added to your system or a product does not pass the GS1 or internal business rules? The answer is Workflow. LANSA has a conditional workflow engine that will alert the right person or group if an attribute is incomplete or doesn’t pass specifications to ensure the product is updated within LANSA or in the original source system. As many of these changes are time sensitive, each step in the workflow process has a latency monitor associated with the action to ensure timely responses.

The final component of validation is logging when a change was made and who approved the modification. LANSA tracks these details via a full audit log for the history of a product to provide a history of the before and after values and which system or individual made those modifications with a time and date stamp. The audit trail for workflows and any associated comments is also captured for historical review.

Communication

After organizations have aggregated and validated their product information, all this data must be communicated to the GDSN, websites and trading partners.

This process can be technically challenging, with each website and trading partner potentially needing product data in a multitude of formats, in multiple languages and over different transport protocols. Requirements evolve over time, forcing organizations to keep pace or fall behind expectations. The same LANSA Business Process Integration Engine leveraged to seamlessly bring information into your system provides this flexibility to communicate your data in the proper format to your trading partners. The system provides the ability to publish to a single entity or update your entire trading partner community at one time with the format of their choice being generated.

For GDSN communication, LANSA has a certified connector to 1WorldSync for communication as both a data supplier and data recipient from the GDSN. LANSA also captures all of the GDSN publication and communication history within the solution to provide a full audit trail of correspondence with your trading partners.

Why choose LANSA’s Product Information Management (PIM) Software?

There is no company with more history or successful integrated installations communicating with 1WorldSync than LANSA. Since 2001, our teams have worked closely to ensure manufactures, distributors and retailers have an integrated solution to automate publication to/from the GDSN.

This success combined with a product roadmap that is driven by our customer base has allowed LANSA Data Sync Direct to be the Product Information Management System of choice by market category leaders across all vertical markets.

Most Trusted PIM

Best portfolio of customer brands in the industry

Top 10 LANSA users generate 1.2 million transactions annually to 1WorldSync and the GDSN

97% customer retention over last 5 years

Accredited

100% GDSN compliant and certified for data pools worldwide

Partnered with 1WorldSync, GS1 and leading technology vendors

First to be certified for MR3 and Retail Price Synchronization

Experienced

In business for 25+ years with thousands of successful implementations